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Before the 1600s East Tennessee was populated by Indians,
primarily the Cherokee but with smaller populations of other tribes. The
name Tennessee comes from the name of a principle Cherokee town called
Tanasi. First a few French and English fur traders came to establish posts
for trading with the Indians, trading guns, blankets, axes, knives for
fur. Sending the furs by pack trains or down the rivers on keelboats to
port cities like Charles Town (Charleston). By the 1700s the high value of
furs brought the long hunters; men such as Davey Crockett.
About 1750 English settlers from Virginia and North Carolina began
migrating across the mountains settling in Indian lands. Earlier settlers
leased the land from the Indians but as the number of settlers increased
they settled wherever they wished many without regard to the Indians. By
the 1770s settlements had been established along the rivers followed by
the arrival of tradesman, craftsman, preachers, soldiers and speculators.
At first the Indians were willing to accommodate the settlers but as
pressure increased even the peaceful Cherokee began armed resistance.
After the Revolutionary War many veteran soldiers received land in
Tennessee as compensation for service bringing another wave of settlers.
The Kinsers of Greene County, Tennessee
The Kinsers immigrated into Greene Co., Tennessee about 1800 or shortly
thereafter. George, Jacob, and Walter Kinser are all listed as Virginia
Taxpayers in Montgomery County, Virginia between 1782 and 1787. These
three Kinsers are later listed as purchasers of items at Peter Kinser's estate
sale in the small community of Liberality, Tennessee in 1813.
The Kinser families seem to have been concentrated at first in one
community, Liberality, in Greene County. The area is now part of Monroe
County. Three small streams flowing through several Kinser farms combined
into a small creek was called Kinser Creek. These farms also bordered on
Dancing Creek, so called because the Cherokee Indians held ceremonial
dances on a flat topped hill near the creek. There is also a Kinser Creek
in Wythe County, Virginia.
Jacob Kinser, Jr. and Sr. appear, along with Peter Kinser, in the 1809
Greene County, Tennessee Tax records all residing on Licking Creek. John
Kinser is added to this small group of Kinsers in 1811 and George in 1813.
Greene County, Tennessee deed indexes record transfers for Jacob, John and
Peter Kinser in 1813. Adam Kinser appears in 1826.
Greene County was formed in 1783 and Monroe and McMinn Counties from Greene in 1819.
John Kinser, Sr., (#16) born February 24, 1793, in Virginia, was married
February 27, 1810, to Sussannah Mesimer, born Dec. 10, 1792, in
Pennsylvania. John died July 12, 1873. John and Sussannah are the East
Tennessee ancestors of our branch of the Kinser family. Records of John's
parents have not been found and there are differing opinions as to their
identity.
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